Evelyne Villines remembers when she was told she couldn’t attend school because she was “handicapped.”

Now 84 and an international advocate for people with disabilities, Villines showed up for her first day of school with her pencil and notepad, ready to learn. But the young girl, who contracted polio at age 3, was sent home and told to inform her mother, “I don’t have time to teach a handicapped child.”

When she returned home, she remembered asking, “Mom, am I a handicapped…